Chapter 2

"You have had experience with humans?" the shipmaster asked.

"Yes sir," Kurr said quickly.

"And what is your experience with them?"
Kurr paused a moment, and thought back. Back to his time on Kali. To the one called Coffey, who was always calm and level headed and respectful, even to a creature as worthless as him. He also thought about the one named Nichols, the sadistic, cruel female who had shot his commanding officer at point blank range, who had dragged his commander off and inflicted any number of atrocities upon him.

"Experience is mixed sir. Just as experience has been mixed amongst you Sangheili."

"Feeling suicidal?" Rtas asked.

"Please sir, I meant no disrespect."

Rtas growled lowly. "Do not let your guard down around the humans."

"I know that lesson well, sir."

The transport lurched to a stop, Rtas staying calm but Kurr, lacking any semblance of balance, tumbled out of his chair and onto the ground. Rtas hoisted him to his feet with ease before leaving the cramped, almost escape pod sized ship that they had been riding in, nodding to the Sangheili pilot, who saluted.

The base was occupied almost solely by humans, who were clearly shocked to see a Sangheili walking through their ranks. They backed away, pressing themselves as far to the sides of the walls that they possibly could as he passed, then breathing a sigh of relief when they realized they still could breathe. Kurr wondered if they knew who they were cowering from. No doubt to them all Sangheili looked alike, just as all humans looked alike to Sangheili. But certainly Rtas was recognizable, with his rather unique deformity. They must have known they were in the presence of the shipmaster. Such a high ranked officer to be gracing their ship, they should have been honored.

Rtas was a tad nervous about this whole affair. Miranda, perhaps the only human he could say he genuinely liked, was dead at Truth's hands. Johnson, who he didn't like too much, was also dead. He believed the Master Chief to be lost, but the Arbiter insisted that he was still out there, somewhere. That thought actually made him shiver. The point was the only human he had what could be called a relationship was Lord Hood, and the mutual discontent between the two would prevent any problems from being solved.

One of the humans didn't step aside fast enough, and was almost trampled beneath Rtas's hooves. He gave a low snarl and snap of his remaining mandibles. The human, for his part, shrieked submissively, and scurried to his side, panting in panic, shivering, holding his assorted files over him as if that would shield him from a blow. The human wasn't a particular bother to Rtas, but he felt he had an image to maintain.

"Shipmaster," a human female said loudly enough that she would be noticed. Petite was not the right word for her. Small was not the word either. The only term in his vocabulary that could possibly do this human justice was tiny, closer to Kurr in size than any other human Rtas had ever seen. She only came up to Rtas' waist. Yet despite this obvious, painful disadvantage, she didn't show the fear that the others did, at least not so blatantly. Oh, there was fear in her eyes and fear in her scent, but she stood firm in face of the Sangheili, she didn't cower like a broken dog. "I am Lieutenant Nicole Kimber," she said, saluting.

"Another Nicole?" Kurr asked with a shiver.

She looked to the Unggoy. They were almost eye level which was somewhat comical. "Nicole is a fairly common name for us. But you can just call me Kimber, or lieutenant." She looked to the Sangheili. "Or human, if you prefer."

Rtas grunted recognition.

"Please, step inside," she said, tapping at a key panel so that the door beside her opened.

Rtas was hesitant. He couldn't see into the room as well as he would like: it was dark, with only a large television screen at the far corner as a source of illumination. Three or four shapeless masses in the shadows. The terms were that he had to come to this little meeting unarmed. Though he was fairly certain that he could take out every human on this station, procuring weapons from the corpses if necessary (he did hate human weapons, but survival was survival), he knew how bad that would be for the budding relationship. And there was a chance that he would be overwhelmed before he found a way to escape. And a part of him was worried about Kurr. He had no real problem with sending an Unggoy to his death, but at the very least, it should be for a worthy cause.

He stepped inside, and was relieved when the room didn't light up with gunfire. He took a seat, with such different design from the others it obviously meant for him. Kurr took one of the human's seat, the one closest to Rtas, and looked about, in his nervous way. He was chewing on his methane respirator as if it were a morsel. There were noticeable bite marks all around it, made by stubby, sharp teeth.

"You all know why you are here," Lieutenant Kimber said. Rtas listened to the light pitter patter of her tiny feet on the ground as she came into the room. She lifted a handheld clicker to her eye and pressed the button with her thumb, and the blank picture on the distant screen blinked to show a transport. "The Blameless Grace. A transport belonging to the Sangheili." She cocked her head towards Rtas, a gesture that was obvious even in the shadows. "It was attacked, its crew slaughtered without any show of mercy. It may have been the Jiralhanae. It may have been one of the rouge sects of Sangheili." She sighed, these next words would not come easily. "It may have been one of us."

There were voiceless scowls throughout the room. Rtas tried to listen, but words were lost.

"Have you anything to say, shipmaster?"

Rtas looked about the room, at the faceless glares that looked back at him. Why did the humans favor dark rooms so? Did they think it gave them some sense of mystique? Did they revel in the darkness so? It was completely impractical, but try to explain to a human the idea of practicality. He stood up to his full height, and gathered his thoughts. "The Blameless Grace was a transportation ship, staffed by approximately one hundred and fifty personal. Mostly Sangheili minors and civilians. Normally, Unggoy would man the ship rather than civilians, but the liberation of the Unggoy has left us low for personnel. Similarly, a ship such as that would normally be granted an escort, but due to our present limitations on ships following the Jiralhanae attacks, it went alone. The term you humans would use is, I believe, 'easy pickings'."

"What was the ship carrying?" asked a masculine voice from his left side.

"The ship was carrying produce. Its purpose is to dock at one of our farm planets, processes the produce on board, and then deliver it where it is needed. The cargo was not valuable. It is not as if there is a shortage of rations."

"You certain there was no doomsday device you split chins wanted to smuggle through space?" asked the masculine voice again.

Rtas gave a low snarl. "No, we are sure to escort the ships that carry the doomsday devices." It seemed that only Lieutenant Kimber understood the sarcasm, because she gave a slight snicker, though to be fair he heard what may have been an Unggoy's version of a chuckle at his side.

Lieutenant Kimber cleared her throat. "Given the lack of value of the cargo, the fact that the crew was composed to a large extent of civilians and minors, and the severity of the attack, we guess that their primary goal wasn't pillage. It seemed like, for lack of a better term, a thrill kill."

Rtas clicked his mandibles, but if Kimber understood the hostility of the gesture, she didn't show it.

"Why is this our concern?" asked the masculine voice. "In case you haven't noticed, we aren't exactly brimming with ships and personnel. Can't the split chins handle this themselves?"
"The Elites are our comrades now, and we need to show them our support."

Why the humans insisted on using the term "Elite", and to a lesser extent, the derogatory term "split-chin," to speak of his kind angered Rtas to no end. They were Sangheili. He, as had most, had given up using derogatory terms for the humans. He called them human, and nothing else.

Lieutenant Kimber tapped her clicker and the lights buzzed to life. "Let's get introductions out of the way. This is Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum." She turned to her subordinates, and gave a look like a mother would when she told her children to behave. "We should be honored to have such a high ranking Elite aiding us in this operation. Shipmaster 'Vadum, this is Private Colt," she said, cocking her head towards the large male, the one that Rtas guessed had been speaking through the demonstration. Private Savage was of average size for a male soldier, with jet black hair and skin so pale, it gave him an unhealthy, ghostly look. In passing, Kimber mentioned that he was squad's communications expert and would regularly be updating her government of any interesting developments. Private Wesson was dark skinned, like Sergeant Johnson, and by how she spoke to him, Kimber's de facto second in command. Rtas hoped this one would prove more agreeable than the late sergeant. That made four.

"I was told that there would be five of you."

"Major Springfield was originally part of this task force, but he fell in the line of duty a few days ago. I guess that makes this my taskforce."

"What operation?"

"I'm afraid that that is classified, even to you." She tapped her clicker, and the door opened, each of the subordinate humans rising and leaving until it was only Rtas, Kurr, and the lieutenant, who casually crossed the room until she was standing before him, looking high up to reach eye level. "I cannot thank you enough for coming here, shipmaster, for agreeing to aid us in this investigation. I understand you must be feeling some reluctance." She sighed. "I want this treaty to last, for a large part simply because if we humans go to war again with you, we are going to die. You know where Earth is, and we still haven't a good idea where Sanghelios is. As you can see, that leaves us at a strategic disadvantage even if we commanded equal forces, which we don't."

Rtas said nothing in response. He enjoyed this human, he had to admit. She was straight forward, honest, sincere, traits that Sangheili held in high regard. Or this may have been a trick. A clever manipulation. Either way, it wasn't easy to deceive a Sangheili and, if she was, she was doing a cunning job.

"I ask you, shipmaster, to aid us in finding whoever did this."
"How did Major Springfield die?"

"He was murdered in a home robbery, the last day of his leave."

"And you do not believe that?"

"That a trained soldier should be killed by some petty thief in a smash grab gone wrong? No, I don't believe it. Not for a moment. He was an outspoken supporter of the treaty; he had a lot of enemies on both sides. There are those of you who don't like us."

Rtas gave a reluctant nod.